


Everything

by Kalira



Category: Naruto
Genre: Childhood Sweethearts, Friendship, Love, M/M, Sakumo Week, Sakumo Week 2020, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-01
Updated: 2020-09-01
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:28:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26233447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kalira/pseuds/Kalira
Summary: There's always been something a little different - definitely more intense - about Sakumo and Orochimaru, from the earliest times Dan met them. Now he's grown and falling in love, he's starting to understand a little bit of it himself.
Relationships: Hatake Sakumo & Katou Dan, Hatake Sakumo/Orochimaru
Comments: 7
Kudos: 168
Collections: Kalira's Sakumo Week Stories (2020), Sakumo Week 2020





	Everything

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [Sakumo Week](https://sakumoweek.tumblr.com/post/616294351828664322/welcome-to-the-official-sakumo-week-blog-starting), Day 1: Friends
> 
> My first story up for Sakumo Week! I will have something up for every prompt, every day~ I do love Dadwolf. ^.^

Dan grinned as he found Sakumo roughly where he’d expected, making his way over to join his teammate. Kohari wasn’t there - she’d be at home with her parents, there was some family thing of theirs today - but that was all right, and he’d expected it anyway.

Sakumo lifted a hand in greeting, then tilted his head curiously as Dan dropped down at his side.

“I’m. . .” Dan paused, sighing. “I’m glad we were assigned to a team together.” he said quietly, honest. Thinking of his sister’s complaints about her new team - though not so new that they shouldn’t be settled in together, or at least starting to be - and wincing. “You’re my best friend.” he added without thinking.

It was true, but he’d never quite said it, knowing - and not upset by the knowledge; it was impossible to be, having seen them together - that while Sakumo was _his_ best friend, Dan was not Sakumo’s-

“You’re my best friend too.” Sakumo said, shouldering him gently.

Dan’s eyes widened. “. . .Sakumo?”

Sakumo frowned slightly. “Don’t you know that?” he asked, reaching out, grabbing Dan’s forearm. “I’m glad we’re on the same team. You’re pack now. You and Kohari both.” He bumped his cheek against Dan’s shoulder with an affectionate rumble.

Dan had picked up the gesture himself, along with some others, though those wolfish rumbles and croons would never come from his throat, and he knew it. He still tried from time to time, mostly without thinking; Sakumo seemed to find it amusing. Certainly Kohari did.

“I . . . ah, I thought . . . Orochimaru-san was your best friend.” Dan said cautiously.

Sakumo _laughed_. “Of course not!” he said, shifting close against Dan’s side. A low sound that was _not_ from Sakumo made Dan jump, looking around. His eyes widened as he saw Orochimaru nearby . . . but he didn’t look upset, even as his eerie eyes swept over Dan and Sakumo.

“Ah- Sakumo?” Dan said uncertainly.

Sakumo grinned, gripping Dan’s shoulder and shaking him a little, companionable. “Orochimaru is my. . .” He paused, and Orochimaru snorted, almost smiling, his eyes honey-warm. “One day he’ll be my mate. He’s my _everything_.” Sakumo said softly, his gaze lingering on Orochimaru for long moments before he seemingly dragged it away, looking back to Dan. “You’re my best friend.”

“Oh.” Dan blinked, feeling a little off-balance, eyes wide.

“And you’re my wolf.” Orochimaru said, voice soft, and Sakumo’s face brightened, his stormy eyes soft and warm as they darted back to Orochimaru.

“They’re very different things.” Sakumo said, and Dan nodded, tensing a little as Orochimaru suddenly moved closer, unsure if _he_ should move away.

Orochimaru smiled at him faintly and he stayed put, even as Orochimaru settled at Sakumo’s side. He dipped his head as Sakumo nuzzled his cheek, releasing Dan’s arm entirely and reaching out.

Dan had known the pair of them were close, had been since long before he met either - before they began attending the Academy; he didn’t know if their parents had been friends or not - but this was . . . something different.

Something, Dan thought, watching Orochimaru curl into Sakumo with a possessive, confident gesture and Sakumo nuzzle and nip at his jaw, drawing him into an embrace, that none of their agemates had. Maybe not yet . . . maybe not ever.

 _One day he’ll be my mate_ , Sakumo had said. Supremely confident, warm and adoring.

The same could be said of the way they were with each other as Dan watched, he thought. They were cosily wound into each others’ space; Sakumo’s arm around Orochimaru’s waist, heads bent together, Orochimaru’s fingers trailing over Sakumo’s arm.

A part of Dan wanted that, very much - not _them_ , not either of them; Sakumo was his best friend and certainly nothing . . . _else_ , and he liked Orochimaru for as much as he _knew_ Orochimaru . . . not like that. No, not either of them, but. . . Something like they showed for each other.

A part of Dan felt uncomfortably lost even thinking about it; how could he even wish for it when it felt so strangely beyond him?

He pushed the thoughts aside as Sakumo’s attention shifted back to him, and smiled, tangling his fingers.

“What brought you here looking so frazzled?” Sakumo asked, sharp eyes on Dan once more. “I thought you were spending time with your imouto; wasn’t she back from her first out of village mission today?”

Dan groaned, and Sakumo’s brows rose. “That bad?”

“The mission? No, I don’t think so.” Dan shook his head and sighed. “Imouto. . .” he trailed off, lips pursing.

“Perhaps I should go.” Orochimaru suggested, and Dan shook off his fugue, then shook his head again.

“Oh, no, it’s not-” Dan winced. “Imouto’s team is not . . . so great as ours.” He met Sakumo’s eyes. “I’m sorry . . . and it made me thankful for our team. Our sensei. And,” he added wryly, “I love my imouto, but I needed a break from her complaints.”

Sakumo smothered a laugh and Orochimaru hummed, squeezing Sakumo’s hand before releasing it, withdrawing a notebook from a hidden pocket and bowing his head over it.

He stayed, though, close against Sakumo’s side as he teased the story out of Dan and commiserated, even if he didn’t have any advice. That was all right; he hadn’t really expected a solution from his best friend, only calm and companionship. Dan found that the silent presence of Orochimaru with them really only made it feel more so, though he wasn’t sure if that was because of Orochimaru himself, or the way Sakumo seemed more settled with Orochimaru at his side.

* * *

“Dan. Come in.” Orochimaru stepped back, swinging the door fully open.

“Thanks.” Dan smiled at him, maybe a little weakly.

Orochimaru’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully. “. . .Sakumo is through at the back. Shall I leave?” he asked, and Dan relaxed a little, shaking his head.

“Thank you, but no, of course you needn’t. I only,” Dan gestured vaguely, then bent to take off his sandals, “ah, I do need to talk to him.”

Orochimaru closed the door, and Dan stilled as Orochimaru’s sharp eyes swept over him.

“Tsunade.” Orochimaru said, and Dan tensed. It wasn’t that he had _forgotten_ Orochimaru was Tsunade’s dearest friend - they looked on each other rather like siblings, Dan thought, knowing them mostly through Orochimaru’s relationship with Sakumo - but. . . “A conversation best had without me, perhaps.” he said, surprising Dan.

“You’re not going to. . .”

Orochimaru arched a brow, then smiled and gestured towards the other end of the house, walking away.

Dan hesitated for a moment, then went after him, thinking about Tsunade and . . . and about _them_. He paused in the doorway as Orochimaru went to Sakumo where he sat by the open shoji and bent to him. Dan watched as Sakumo reached up, linking their fingers and accepting a brush of a kiss.

Orochimaru smoothed his fingers over Sakumo’s cheek, then through his hair. “Dan’s here to talk to you, wolf-heart. Something important.” he said, resting their brows together. He straightened and turned towards Dan with a smile. “I’ll leave you to it.”

He moved away, their hands falling away from each other with a last absent caress, and Dan nodded shallowly in thanks as he left them alone. Dan was still thinking of how they were together - how they always had been together, from before when he had first met Sakumo, and shortly after that, Orochimaru. The one always had meant the other, sooner or later.

Sakumo gestured him over, and Dan smiled as he went to make himself comfortable by his best friend. “What’s got you looking so pensive?” he asked, nudging Dan companionably.

Dan opened his mouth, but found that for all he’d been thinking about this conversation he wished to have for days now, he didn’t yet have words. Sakumo clasped his wrist and Dan relaxed, smiling. He thought of the easy way Sakumo and Orochimaru had always been with one another, warm and _sure_ , an affection that had seemed sweet but strange when he was younger - something closer to what he saw in his parents than people their age - and only growing in intensity and scope as they got older. Of course, Dan had grown, too, and that kind of . . . connection, devotion, had become something to long for in earnest, if not with any thought of a _who_ to put with that longing.

It was different, he found, and stronger, now that it wasn’t only the shape of a desire with no substance; now that he wanted that kind of partnership, _love_ , between himself and Tsunade rather than simply in itself.

Sakumo grinned as Dan managed to get at least some of the non-linear confusion in his head out in words. He found himself thankful for their long friendship and the easy way they could read each other; he thought not everything he said was quite sensible, but Sakumo, at least, understood him regardless. Then again, Sakumo knew. . .

“Love is like that.” Sakumo said, which was, somehow, exactly what Dan had needed to hear first.


End file.
